Home » News » Research Snapshot: What do physicians say about centralized intake services for youth mental health?

Research Snapshot: What do physicians say about centralized intake services for youth mental health?

February 7, 2013

For many youth, their family doctor is the main source of mental health help information; however some patients will need more specialized services. To make sure that these youth receive the treatment they need, doctors must be able to easily refer them to the appropriate services. Centralized intake (CI) for mental health referrals is a single-entry gateway for patients to access specialized mental health services.

Ontario researchers surveyed 388 doctors who were working with youth, to ask them about their knowledge of, views about, and experience with mental health, mental health referrals, and centralized intake (CI). The researchers found that only half of these doctors were aware of CI services before the survey.

Physicians also highlighted their concerns related to CI, which fit into the following four categories:

Wait times

Scarcity of resources

Referral back to the community for services

Insufficient feedback to physicians

To get the full story, check out EENet’s new Research Snapshot of the article, “Child and Youth Mental Health Service Referrals: Physicians’ Knowledge of Mental Health Services and Perceptions of a Centralized Intake Model,” by Paula Cloutier, Mario Cappelli, Elizabeth J. Glennie, Gilles Charron, and Smita Thatte. The article appeared in Healthcare Policy, vol. 5, no. 3: 144-61.